nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
There are many players who play well on all surfaces. But everyone has a preference. UTS gives a great breakdown of players based on their matches won. I am trying to find some pattern. Let's see.
Taking only the most accomplished players who are also active.
There are 4 guys with clay as their favorite surface. Nadal Thiem Zverev and Tsitsipas. Zverev is slightly skewed on clay.
What is evident is clay amplified their return significantly.
Nadal is +9.6 absurdly. For him the return is like a groundstoke unless the server really hammers it T and Nadal can't get it.
Thiem +3.8 not as big difference but his serve also did not drop a lot because of his kicker out wide.
Tsitsipas +6.9
Zverev +4. Zverev case is serious. He lost as much on serve as he gained on return. This is a problem for him.
I would say total of 115 is elite player.
While grass courters did not suffer as much as their very weak return games got some boost with exception of Andy Murray who has amazing return but not as good a serve yet having grass as his favorite surface.
And for hard courters it was a negative as they lost too much on serve that the gain on return is negligible. I see only Medvedev from true hard specialist. His serve became mediocre, in fact he is the WORST of the list on hold % on clay but his return actually decreased as well on clay. Major bummer.
Taking only the most accomplished players who are also active.
| Name | Favorite Surface | HLD % overall | HLD% on clay | BRK % overall | BRK% on clay | Total on all surface | Total on clay |
| Djokovic | Hard slightly | 86 | 81.9 | 31.9 | 35.3 | 117.9 | 117.2 |
| Nadal | Clay majorly | 85.7 | 84.6 | 33.3 | 42.9 | 119 | 127.2 |
| Murray | Grass majorly | 81.6 | 76.5 | 30.3 | 32.8 | 111.9 | 109.8 |
| Medvedev | HC majorly | 83.9 | 76.3 | 27.2 | 27 | 111.1 | 103.3 |
| Zverev | Clay slightly | 82.4 | 78.5 | 25.1 | 29.1 | 107.5 | 107.6 |
| Alcaraz | Grass majorly shocker | 81.4 | 80.3 | 30.6 | 34.6 | 112 | 110.9 |
| Thiem | Clay majorly | 82.8 | 82 | 22.9 | 26.7 | 105.7 | 108.7 |
| Tsitsipas | Clay majorly | 86.3 | 84.4 | 20.7 | 27.6 | 107 | 112 |
| Cilic | Grass majorly | 83.8 | 81.5 | 22.6 | 26.3 | 106.4 | 107.8 |
| Nishikori | Mixed slow | 79.8 | 78.4 | 26.9 | 30.7 | 109.4 | 109.2 |
| Raonic | Mixed fast | 91.2 | 87.9 | 16 | 19.4 | 108.2 | 107.3 |
| Dimitrov | All rounder | 82.5 | 79.7 | 21.9 | 24.6 | 104.4 | 104.5 |
| Sinner | Mixed slow | 82.1 | 77.4 | 26.9 | 32.2 (very young and these numbers are far different in 2024. | 105 | 109.6 |
| Berrettini | Grass majorly | 87.8 | 86.8 | 18.1 | 21.1 | 105.9 | 107.9 |
There are 4 guys with clay as their favorite surface. Nadal Thiem Zverev and Tsitsipas. Zverev is slightly skewed on clay.
What is evident is clay amplified their return significantly.
Nadal is +9.6 absurdly. For him the return is like a groundstoke unless the server really hammers it T and Nadal can't get it.
Thiem +3.8 not as big difference but his serve also did not drop a lot because of his kicker out wide.
Tsitsipas +6.9
Zverev +4. Zverev case is serious. He lost as much on serve as he gained on return. This is a problem for him.
I would say total of 115 is elite player.
While grass courters did not suffer as much as their very weak return games got some boost with exception of Andy Murray who has amazing return but not as good a serve yet having grass as his favorite surface.
And for hard courters it was a negative as they lost too much on serve that the gain on return is negligible. I see only Medvedev from true hard specialist. His serve became mediocre, in fact he is the WORST of the list on hold % on clay but his return actually decreased as well on clay. Major bummer.
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